Project 6: Beautiful Lies

Project 6 Vocal Variety

• Use voice volume, pitch, rate and quality to reflect and add meaning and interest to your message.
• Use pauses to enhance your message.
• Use vocal variety smoothly and naturally.
• 5-7 min

All is fair in love and war – when they say so , could you get what makes them fair? The most essential ingredient in both this places is lie. When a young man meets his woman ; there are two ways to express his love. He could go straight to her and say “Hey I want to marry you” or express his wonder at her charm and plea her ” Oh Charming young lady, I ha vent seen a beauty as beautiful as you. Will you marry me!”

Respected President , Toastmaster of the day fellow toastmasters and distinguished guests , I am going to share with you more Beautiful lies like that today. Looking back neither the guy was blind nor the girl was dumb to fake reality. They knew the reality but the little lie has made the moment for them. More larger moments like this are made out of little lies like it.

What is a lie? A lie is something which you tell someone knowing that its not true. Do you agree with this definition. I don’t.There is a possibility of lying even by telling the truth. Last week when my mom asked where I had been, I told her that i had been to the park. But what I refrained was the fact that i had gone there with my girl friend. Philosophers call it Lying by omission. If I had told her the truth that would have caused tremors in both the relationships – the one b.w me and my mom and the the other between me and my girl friend.

You can find many such beautiful lies sprinkled along in our life.Why should a man lie ? Isnt amoral or morally reprehensible.? When i think of lies in my life i couldn’t stop thinking of my dad. He is the one who lied me all through the course of the life.

When I was put in my kg, I cried to my dad “Dad I am not happy with the school. I will get back to home.I have lot of problems here!”. My Dad said ” Dont worry kid. This school is just for two years.After two years you will grow up and I will put you in a bigger school were you wont have any problems.”. Sure I did grew up and landed in the bigger school where the older problems vanished, but i had got even bigger new problems,particularly with mathematics.

Then days kept rolling and one fine day I got in to higher secondary. The entire family thronged in to my table and my Dad started ” Dude this is the most important phase of your life.If you work harder here the entire life will be a smooth sail for you. You need to score well to get in to a good college!” Well I belived his words rather lies and scored enough to get in to a reasonably good college.

May be I did not get in to the IIT’s but my problems would have been the same even if i had been there. I was thrown away from my home away from my loved ones and worst of all i was asked to take messy mess food.I went back to my dad and told him “Dad Why should I go there away from you. I need to be with you Dad.I dont deserve to be away from home”. My Dad again lied “Son, You must understand that you are growing up. You need to make a life on your own, for which you need a job and the job badly needs this degree. Go get crowned. You will make it beautiful in life”. I believed and came back and passed four years and landed up in a good job as told.

But only after coming up I understood that the job was not as good as it was told to be. Do you like yourself to be imprisoned inside the glass prison from 9 AM to 9PM listening to a grumpy boss? I went back to my Dad and suggested him rather i take up his business . He said “Son Be cool.This is the most important phase of your life. You need to make your own family and you need to get a good life which needs a good wife. And a good wife demands a good job like yours.” That seemed like a truth to me.

But assume that I get married to the most cutest girl in the universe. I could envisage myself walking back to my Dad after a couple of months .Dad ” Why should share my time and space with a moron such as she. We dont have anything in common and please get me a divorce”. My dad will be saying ” Son ! These are phases which everyone undergoes in life. Everything will be resolved once you get a kid”. I believe in him and walk back.

It happened I got a kid but only later to find out that he is the most mischievous kid in the world. I went back to my Dad ” Oh No Dad i am tired of this life. I was happy as a kid but now i couldn’t be myself. This kid has only aggravated our problems.I get lot of complaints about him . I need to do something!” . Dad said ” Don’t worry dear son! In a year he will be going to school.Put him prekg and your problems will be solved once he starts going to school.

I was dumb stuck “Dad are you the one saying it. Do you remember that all my problems started only from the day I entered that kinder garden.How can you ask me to do the same for my child “. My Dad had a smile and said “Son you got it! Thats life. My Dad asked me to do that and go and do that to your son.He will understand about it later in life”.

When i was back i stood apart and thought about the path I walked . It was really beautiful. I was a happy kid in the KG’s, hard working student in my school days, an inquistive teen at my college , been a passionate worker and a compassionate lover. All was possible only because my dad’s lies. When he lied to me , it was not that he was not aware of reality but he wanted to create a beautiful ambience for me where i could do my best without worrying about the results.The ultimate purpose of human life is to be happy and make the ones around you happy. And its not bad when you achieve it with some Beautiful lies like these.

Thanks to my Dad and here i come my Son. ….

Project 10: Talent is Overrated

Project 10: INSPIRE YOUR AUDIENCE
Objectives:
* To inspire the audience by appealing to noble motives and challenging the audience to achieve a higher level of beliefs or achievement.
* Appeal to the audience’s needs and emotions, using stories, anecdotes and quotes to add drama.
* Avoid using notes.
* TIME: Eight to ten minutes.

Neil Armstrong lands on the moon.
Hillary and tenzing climbs mount everest.
Sachin tendulkar scores his 100th century.
Viswanath Anand wins yet another world chess championship.
ARRahman wins two oscars.
And my friend and colleauge next door gets promotion hike and a beautiful girl.

Respected president, TM of the day fellow and future toastmasters Good evening. These are some good news about great people.- Super achievers. When I hear such news I feel happy for a second , jealous for a moment, ambitious for a while and then run for lame excuses on why Its fine for me to not attempt any such things. I always draw a line of demarcation between me the common man and they the super achievers. Even if have dream or desire to step in to moon inherently there is a voice saying to myself “No Deepak .. You cannot..You aren’t born to a astronaut.!” You dont have the magical talent to compose Jai Ho!

Ladies and gentleman whats going on in my mind is a Talent crisis. A crisis which has arised because we are not tapping our individual strengths and that we do not yet have enough faith in each person’s ability to punch above his or her weight. We love reading many such news about super achievers. We love being spectators when such super achievements are made but when it comes for us to enter the arena we have doubts on our own ability. We doubt our ability to attain a goal of such heights. We dream big but hardly do believe in them.We are afraid of failures.

People fail more often than they succeed. Hence they say its good to learn from failures. But at the same time we overlook success and read very little from them. Rather misinterpret success and attribute their success to a abstract term called talent.

Now say if I have a dream of being a astronaut, what stops me from entering a ISRO or NASA. I dont have good grades at college. But little did I know that Neil Armstrong the moon man was also an average student while at college. He secured admission into MIT the temple of knowledge. But he happens to be the first graduate from his family and the only engineer whom he know advised him not to go too far for his studies and hence he took up a school near to his place which offered him a scholarship on a condition that he has to serve three years in navy after completing his studies. That made him chose aeronautical engineering and that how he started flying. But he didnt have an iota of ambition to Land on moon. Do you know that the man who stood on Mount Everest was the weakest kid in his class?

They were all in diverse fields spreading across various countries but there was a common denominator which divides successful people from unsuccessful. Practise. Practise Practise. On a average it takes 10 000 hours to make a successful grandmaster.

A good practice is something where you have a well defined goal to aim at, the task should neither be too easy nor be totally out of your reach. And you should have the opportunity to make and correct mistakes. And some kind of feed back mechanism to correct your faulty steps.Above all a desperate need to succeed.

You dont get this inside paid classrooms or in the cosy comfortness of a multi millionaire .SlumDog millionaire AR Rahman started flirting with the keyboards when he was 11. His dad who run the business of renting music instruments died when ARR was young and hence ARR came in to the trade. He was in the crew of illaya raja. There were so many who were so in those days. But what made arr stand apart. It his passion for music and the rigurous practice he put in. In his book “OutLiers” Malcom Gladwell mentions that it takes on an average 10000 hours to make a grandmaster.

Same is the case with super achievers.Their practice would be slow, painstaking and error-focused.Coyle describes a tennis academy in Russia where they enact rallies without a ball. The aim is to focus meticulously on technique. By practicing in this way, performers delay the automatizing process. The mind wants to turn deliberate, newly learned skills into unconscious, automatically performed skills. But the mind is sloppy and will settle for good enough. By practicing slowly, by breaking skills down into tiny parts and repeating, the strenuous student forces the brain to internalize a better pattern of performance.

You hardly can err after having such a practice.With a focussed vision and deliberate practice you are sure to hit the success. Oh 10000 hours to be a grandmaster , typing programs from age 5 and keyboard from age 11 cricket from age 4 .. Does it what takes for a super achivement. I am 24 and I dont have a concrete vision? Is my life doomed because I dont have a vision? Am I going to be a looser till death.

No a vision is an enlightenment. Things remain the same before and after this lightning. But its we who get changed by this sudden enlightenment. There is a famous zen saying “Before enlightment Chop wood carry water” After enlightenment chop wood carry water. No matter what you do do it with perfection and consciousness. Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul even to your smallest acts. This is the secret of success. Success is when preparation meets opportunity. Be ready with the ticket called practice so that you dont miss the opportunity bus which takes you to the destination called success. No matter what you do today , you can take something out of it for your tomorrows work.

There are people who work hard and stay mediocre. Its because they work hard within their comfort zone taking predictable steps. When you have a big dream you must be prepared to bet on certain unpredictables. Victory or Success doesnt happen all the time. But yet its those failures which increases your value for success. Life is a roller coaster ride.Not a merry go round.

But no matter whats going around. Apply yourself to what you do fully. Going to bed everynight with a feeling that I am better man than what I was in the morning gives you a healthy sleep. Practice not only makes us perfect but confident. Toastmasters is a testimonial to it. I would like to mention a little about TM Anupam here. Public Speaking is a challenge to all of us. But for this man even speaking was a challenge. People were apprehensive about his speaking skills and raised their eyebrows whenever he took the stage. But he used every opportunity to hone his skills and we raise our eyebrows even now in awe and inspiration.

For those who had been part of your cultural shows you will be aware of the rigorous practise they would have put in before the show. A musician practices his scores over and over again. A dancer goes over and over the steps necessary for fluidity. An actor plays his part till he masters his dialogues. What we see at the end is just the refined final output. We the audience arent aware of the umpteen rehearsals which went beyond the screen.

It is perhaps attitude, not aptitude, that gives us altitude in life. Practice beats skills. Think of the never die attitude of Rocky, Think of the perseverance of Mahatma gandhi, think of the tolerance shown by Mother Thersa. Thats what makes them what we are and that is what it takes for us to be a super achiever. Practice makes 0000you to utilise your potentials to the fullest which can transform your self. People aroud get inspired and emulate you.The next time when you hesitate to take some thing give a thought on how much you have practicer. Talent is overated .Practise is overlooked.. Anything is possible. Nothing is out of the reach of our hands…! No matter where you are the opportunity rests on your shoulders to change your lives and change the world we live in it.